How many characters total have appeared in the Pokemon anime?

Question

All of them.

EDIT: All named characters and characters that play a role in the story, however small.

Comments

Somewhere between negative infinity and infinity

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just the question we needed!
I'm sure you have a very real and VERY serious reason for needing to know. +1

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We've finally hit rock bottom. Dare we dig deeper?

Answer 1

There is a full list on the right hand side of this page
http://www.serebii.net/anime/characters/

Comments

Is there a way to ensure that is all of them? It seems like they only counted ones that have Pokemon.